VIDEO: Falcon 7X Sets New Speed Record

Q: What's the fastest way to get from downtown New York to London's financial center?

A: On a Dassault Falcon 7X

There are 218 Falcon 7Xs in service, but surprisingly, few operators are aware that the 7X is currently the only aircraft that can fly non-stop from London City Airport to New York. Dassault set about changing that last week, and decided to set a speed record in the process.

On May 2, I was one of three passengers on board a Falcon 7X (reg F-HGHF, S/N 207) flying from New York’s Teterboro Airport to London City (the helo in the background filmed the Teterboro departure that you see in the video below).

The clock started at 12:04 UTC (08:04 at Teterboro) and stopped at 17:58 UTC (18:58 at London City), setting a new speed record of 5 hours and 54 minutes.

We cruised at FL290, flying at Mach 0.88. We burned a whopping 27,000lb of fuel on this flight, but the sole aim was to set a record.

To compare fuel burn, the previous day Business & Commercial Aviation’s Editor-In-Chief William Garvey flew on the same aircraft from London City Airport to Teterboro. That flight took 7 hours and 35 minutes, cruising at FL470, Mach .80. The fuel burn on that flight was 17,000lb.